the Other Bug
by Marie Ford
Summary: Twelve years after, Flicka, Flick and Atta's daughter, just wants to be different from most princesses. Harvey, an young grasshopper, can't seem to live up to his dad's expectations. Their both free spirits, and they want adventure. Soon after they meet, the two kids will get much more than they bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ten-year-old Flicka sighed. Air. Fresh air, free from the chores of being princess. Her mother, Queen Atta, was wonderful, but Flicka just didn't like being smooshed down under the lectures that came too often, and she had finally gotten some alone time.

Flicka flew up to a nice green leaf, and started up at the big fluffy clouds. Her eyes started to get just a little heavy, and she begin to let them close.

Snap!

Flicka's eyes popped open, and she carefully peaked out from behind the leaf. She hoped it was her dad, Flick. Her mother would have been very upset if she had found her not doing homework.

But she didn't see anybug, and she flew down to the ground near the base of the planet she was near.

Then she heard footsteps, and she ducked behind the plant. It got closer, and closer, and-

THUNK!

The footsteps stopped for a second, and she looked out from behind the plant.

It was...a GRASSHOPPER!

Her eyes wided in terror, then she suddenly frowned. It was a really small grasshopper, maybe even smaller than her. He only walked on his two jumping legs, and under three of his arms he carried at least two books in each, and under his fourth he carried what looked like a large rocket. His eyes looked just a bit to big for his head, and he was frowning at the ground. Flicka followed his gaze. He was starring at a smaller book that was on the ground, and he tried to get it, but his attempts to pick it up with his already full arms was rather humorous. He obviously didn't want to put all of his stuff down, so he tried to get it with his foot.

Flicka stared at his face again. "You're a kid!" She suddenly cried.

The small insect jumped a full inch in the air, all of his things flying everywhere as he let out a tremendous yelp.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!"

He looked up and starred in surprise, and a bit of fear. "You...you're an ant!"

Flicka blinked. "What's wrong with that?" She asked, not in a rude way.

"Well," he said. "I've just...never seen an actual ant before."

Flicka reached down and picked up some of the books, and handed them back to the grasshopper, but the small bug hesitated before taking them.

"I've heard a lot of stories about ants," he said, staring at her. "You're not gonna feed me to any...any birds, are you?"

Flicka gave him a funny look. "Of course not! I'm not a heartless bug. And I wouldn't feed any little bugs to a-"

"I'm not little!" The grasshopper suddenly cried out, and he stood up a little straighter.

Flicka walked right up to him. He was just a grassblade smaller then her, but he was smaller, and he shrunk back down.

"I...I bet I'm older than you!" he tried.

"Are you nine?"

He grinned and straightened up again. "Eleven. And you?"

Now it was Flicka's turn to frown. "Ten. But I'm still taller than you."

"And I'm still older than you," he said with a grin. He picked up the rest of his things, and somehow managed to tuck it all under both left arms. He hesitated, then held out his top right hand. "You're a nice ant. I'm Harvey."

Flicka fermly shook his hand. "You're nice for grasshopper. I'm Flicka."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So, do you live around here?" Harvey asked, looking around.

"Yea," Flicka said. She turned and pointed to the big tree that was nearby. "Right under the tree is where my home is. Where do you live?" she asked.

"Well, if you walk, about three hours away from here, but if you fly, about half an hour. It mostly depends on how well and how fast you can fly. My dad could probably fly here in about ten minutes."

He stopped for a second, then continued.

"I live in this big hollowed out cacti. It's not as green there as it is here," he added, more to himself.

Flicka eyed his books. "And I thought I love to read," she said with a smile.

Harvey pulled out one of the books, and popped it open. "They're mostly science books. I love to do experiments, and I like making things."

"Me too! My dad is an inventor, and he's even written a few science books himself. You should see him. Maybe you could change his mind about grasshoppers hating inventions and science and stuff."

Harvey hesitated, then said, "Most grasshoppers where I live don't care much for science. They prefer sports. My dad's into sports, and he kind of dislikes science. In fact, everyone expects me to be a big sports freak like him, and I just don't care much for it."

"Ugh, I know how you feel," Flicka said. "Everyone thinks I should know politics and everything that's going on and know how to do everything just because I'm a princess. Sometimes I wish everyone would let me be for a little while."

Harvey nodded his head. He hadn't realized how much he could have in common with an ant.

Flicka suddenly pulled the book out of Harvey's hand and looked at the cover. "Hey, this book is by my dad!"

Harvey leaned closer. "Really?"

"Yea." She pointed to the name on the front. "See, it says Flick. That's my dad's name."

Harvey stared at the book, than snached it out of her hands, still fixed on the cover. He looked up at Flicka, looking a bit worried and scared.

"You mean, you're Flick's daughter?!"

"Yea," she said, but she couldn't figure out why he seemed frightened. "You know, you should meet my dad, he-"

"I...I'm late!" He suddenly whirled around to run off, then turned back around. "Nice meeting you!" He managed to say. Then he ran off again, and Flicka couldn't see him for a moment. Then she saw a small shape fly into the air. It was the little grasshopper riding on a beetle. He waved, then flew away, and she soon lost sight of him.

Flicka grinned, then remembered that she might be late for something, and she hurried off.

* * *

Harvey jumped off the beetle, and rushed into the big cacti. As usual, it was bustling with activity, grasshoppers going this way and that. In a large room across from him, he could see a bunch of adult grasshoppers sitting down at a big meeting table, and Harvey had a bad feeling that his dad would most likely be there. His dad didn't like meetings, but he never knew his dad to miss one or be late for one. Harvey slipped into a small alcove that was farther away from the room that was closed off by a curtain, and almost ran into a grasshopper.

"Harvey!" the other grasshopper cried. He was the same age as Harvey, but a tiny bit bigger. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you? I've got everything ready, we just need the rocket, which I see you've remembered, aim, and then we light it! BOOM! Right into the middle of the great room!" He gestured to a giant crossbow that was big enough to shoot the rocket. A pile of matches was beside it.

Harvey shook his head. "We can't, Riley. I forgot that the meeting was today, and if we do it, then he'll know it was me."

Riley's face fell. "But we've been planning it all week!"

"I know, but my dad said that I can't do it around him, or in a way that would embarrass him. I'm sorry."

Riley nodded, then suddenly brightened up. "Blame it on Me!" he said, and snatched up the rocket, carring it over to the crossbow.

"NO!" Harvey cried, and tried to pull the rocket away. "You know my dad. Even if you do it, he'll know that I helped some way!"

"Come on, Harvey," Riley said as he pulled the rocket out of Harvey's hands and placed in the crossbow. He took one of the matches, and lit it. "Why would your dad automatically think you set off a rocket?"

Suddenly, an adult female grasshopper pulled open the curtain. It was Riley's mother, and she gasped when she saw the two bugs.

"What's going on?!" She cried, making them jump.

And making Riley drop the match. But it just barely missed the rocket fuse, and it landed in the pile of matches, catching them all on fire.

"I got it!" Harvey cried, and stooped down to blow them out. He blew and blew and-

FSSSSSS! Went the fuse, as it suddenly caught on fire.

Harvey started to frantically blow, but it was to late, and he ducked just as the rocket shot off.

Straight for the meeting room.

Harvey stared in horror as the rocket zipped across the table, bounced off the walls, then blasted back into the middle of the Big Room. It made all the grasshoppers run in every direction, and one got caught by his leg on the rocket, then fell on a table with a Wilhelm scream. It suddenly skidded back to the meeting room, then stopped.

There was complete silence. Some of them backed away from it. A whole minute passed, and one of the bugs nudged it with his foot. Nothing.

The entire room let out one big sigh.

Suddenly, the rocket begin to vibrant, and then a loud ear-splitting series of squeaks and pops could be heard from it.

"No," Harvey whispered.

Then it exploded. Bright sparks shot out every which way, and the whole room was total chaos. The noise only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed like hours to them, and especially to Harvey.

Finally, everything started to calm down in a few seconds. Harvey stared at the crater that the rocket had left behind, then looked up.

Everybug in the room was starring at him.

He couldn't help but gulp. Especially when he saw his dad walk right up to him, cross both arms and give him the glare. Only his dad could give a glare that would make a bug flop over in fear, or make Harvey not meet his gaze. Everybug was already afraid of him anyway.

The grasshopper tapped his foot. "Harvey?"

Harvey forced a timid smile, and looked up at his dad. "Hopper?"

Hopper just narrowed his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"But Dad, I can explain everything-" said Harvey as he and his father walked into their house.

"You don't need to explain anything, because I SAW everything," cried Hopper. "You know better! I've told you a thousand times, and you still don't listen."

Harvey's home was the inside top part of the cacti. Harvey, his father, and his whole community, in fact, lived in the big cacti. The cacti was divided up into sections. One section had all of the houses the grasshopper families lived in, another had the schools, and other sections had jobs and other stuff. Underneath the cacti was an old grasshopper dungeon, which held nothing, save for Thumper. The entrance to the cacti was called the Great Room, or to most the Big Room, where all the big things took place, such as ceremonies, but every other day, it served more or less as a mall like center, with different rooms.

"But it wasn't my fault-" Harvey begin, but Hopper held up his hand.

"First rule of leadership?"

Harvey sighed. "Everything is my fault," he said glumly. If Harvey had heard that phrase once, then he'd heard it a million times.

"But I didn't mean to!"

"It seems lately you never mean to do anything! If you were more mature, and stopped playing around like a five-year old, maybe you wouldn't be in situations like these. Maybe you wouldn't be scared of everything. You might have even been started flying by now, like you should have years ago."

"Dad!" Harvey winced. "I just-"

"Harvey, that's enough. Upstairs, now."

Harvey sighed, and hurried off to his room. Unlike most boy's rooms, it was rather quite clean and nice. A few leaves scattered on the floor, but nothing to bad. His bed was pretty close to the center of the room, if the headboard hadn't been against the wall. On the opposite wall was his desk covered in leaves and notebooks. Two shelves were on both sides of the desk, the door was right across from the window, and between them was the bed. On the right side of the bed by the door was a small table with a light, a few drawings of inventions, a small toy stuffed grasshopper, and two pictures. On the other side by the window was a large box that read 'Sportz Stuff.' There was a hole in the side of the box, however, and Harvey climbed over the bed and lifted up the box, revealing a drop of water, a small pile of grass, and on a bed of cotton, a little aphid.

The aphid looked up at Harvey, and Harvey grinned.

"Hi, Alph."

The aphid let out a little yelp, but Harvey quickly shushed him.

"You can't be loud Alph; if Dad finds you, he'll give you to Thumper for a snack."

Harvey lifted the Alph to his face, and Alph begin to lick him like crazy. Harvey had found Alph, and had been secretly keeping him for about two months. Harvey knew that his Dad wouldn't let him get pets. He had asked for one once-more than once, actually-and each time, Hopper would look over the pet, then look at Harvey, and say, "We've got Thumper: we don't need any more pets."

But Thumper was more of Hopper's pet than the Family pet, and even though Thumper liked Harvey, Harvey didn't spend much time with him.

Alph panted and hopped on Harvey's bed, and Harvey rolled over to look at the pictures. One was of a little baby Harvey, but the other was of a pretty, curly antennaed female grasshopper. She had soft features, and looked much nicer than other male grasshoppers. She was looking up and smiling a nice smile, and peeking out from behind her legs was an older Harvey than the last picture, but he was about toddler age.

"Hi Mom." Whispered Harvey. He wished she was there. He picked up the toy grasshopper, Mr, Bug, and stared at him.

Alph let out a small whine, and Harvey stroked him to keep him quiet.

"Hey, you wanna know what I did today? I met an ant. A nice one. And kinda pretty to."

Alph paused his panting for a moment, and looked at Harvey.

"No, I'm not gonna tell dad about her. Not yet anyway."


End file.
